Resources To Investigate Your Hospital For Past Complaints of Medical Malpractice

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MEDICAL MALPRACTICE-STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

How long does someone have to initiate a medical malpractice lawsuit?

"The law requires that a medical malpractice lawsuit be initiated within two years from the date when the injury is first sustained or discovered or in the exercise of reasonable care should have been discovered. The law also requires that it be initiated within three years from the date of the act or omission complained of (CGS § 52-584). (The courts typically refer to the two year period as the statute of limitation and the three year limit as the statute of repose)"  (Coppolo, 2006).

Reference Coppolo, G. , (2006). Medical Malpratice-Statute of Limitations. Retrieved from http://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0583.htm

Nursing Medical Malpractice Cases

Sample Case Evaluation Reports - Nursing Expert Witness
Please click on the titles below to go to the corresponding sample Case Evaluation Reports. Elderly Nursing Home Patient Develops Urine Infection, Severe Dehydration Untreated and Dies. New! Post–Operative Narcotic Drug Overdoses Causing Respiratory Arrest, Brain Death and Death. Intra-venous site developing thrombophlebitis, and it causing Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (R.S.D.) Intravenous in arm vein not changed for 3 days, and causes disabling thrombophlebitis (clotting and pain). Nurse fails to follow the doctor's orders and feeds post-operative patient too soon, who then vomits and aspirates (breathes it into her lungs), and develops pneumonia. Confused, demented, sedated, disoriented 80 year old patient was hospitalized for surgery for a broken (fractured) hip, and after surgery was not properly restrained, fell out of bed, and fractured her other hip. Click the Link For More Cases Medical Review Foundation, LLC

Want To Read Actual Medical Malpractice Cases?

Please click on the titles below to go to the corresponding sample Case Evaluation Reports.

• Diabetic Ketoacidosis Inadequately Treated Resulting in Obvious Deterioration and Respiratory Cardiac Arrest. New!
  
• Patient With Pnemonia on a Ventilator Removes Endotraheal Tube; Negligent Reinsertion causes Lack of Oxygen and Death. New!
  
• Head injury patient given anticoagulation (blood thinner) for heart attack concern; develops cerebral hemorrhage, coma, and dies.

• Difficulties Inserting Artery Catheter for Monitoring and Fluids.
  
  
• Ventilator breathing tube removed, vomiting and negligent resuscitation causing death.

• Eighteen Hour Delay For Surgery For Leaking Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Increased Risk Of Death. New!
  
  
• Baby with Meningitis Misdiagnosed as Bladder Infection, Inadequately Treated, becomes Deaf.
  
• Gun shot wound to the heart with collapsed lung and pericardial tamponade (clots squeezing the heart like a vice), emergency open chest surgery and failure to suture the two holes in the heart.
  
  
• Head injury after a seizure or beating with lethargy assumed to be from the seizure, no CT scan, and sent home with intra-cerebral hemorrhage causing brain death.
  
  
• Elderly patient with severe vomiting forced fed x-ray dye, vomits and chokes in a CT scanner, and delayed and improper rescusitation with coma, and then perforated stomach and surgery from medication errors, and followed by death.
  
  
• AIDS Patient comes to Emergency Room with pneumonia and needs a ventilator. He gets steroids, gets worse and dies.
  
  
• Diabetic foot infection mistreated resulting in gas gangrene and leg amputation.
  
  
• Head injury in an elderly patient taking an anticoagulant (blood thinner), not given antidote, resulting in brain hemorrhage.
  
• Not diagnosed heart attack and developing stroke was claimed.

For More True Cases Click the Link    

Medical Review Foundation, Inc.

Refrain From Making Negative Comments

Bet you wondered how you were supposed to document everything but refrain from entering negative comments about the patient in the medical record.

If a patient is noncompliant please document that but avoid mentioning things like the patient's personality and even body odor. The plaintiff's attorney will use these negative comments to suggest you disliked the patient and were more likely to provide substandard care.

Stein, T. (2000). More patients are naming nurses in malpractice suits. Retrieved from http://www.nurseweek.com/features/00-05/malpract.html

No. 1 way to prevent malpractice suits

Be Honest!

Read the article for more information.


http://healthexecnews.com/no-1-way-to-prevent-malpractice-suits


What do you think?

Listen To Your Patient!

Third Step To Avoid Medical Malpractice

Question Authority?

Okay not always but if a physician fails to act when your patient is in distress contact your supervisor.

Follow the chain of command until the problem is resolved. Aoiding confrontation may seem like the easiest path to take but remember if you don't it could cost you your license.

Source:
Stein, T. (2000). More patients are naming nurses in malpractice suits. Retrieved from http://www.nurseweek.com/features/00-05/malpract.html

Second Tool To Minimize Your Risk of Medical Malpractice

Know the law.

"Your state’s Nurse Practice Act is the standard by which your professional behavior will be judged in any potential malpractice case. If it can be conclusively shown that you acted in accordance with the law, the case will likely be dismissed before it goes to trial" (Stein, 2000).

Source:
Stein, T. (2000). More patients are naming nurses in malpractice suits. Retrieved from http://www.nurseweek.com/features/00-05/malpract.html

Minimize Risk of Medical Malpractice.

Remember the basic skill we were taught in nursing school?

If it isn't documented it didn't happen.

Review Questions

Quizzes by Quibblo.com | SnapApp Quiz Apps

Malpractice Statistics

National Council of State Boards of Nursing reported that disciplinary actions for practice related issues for nurses has increased in the past five years (Ellis, 2010).

The National Practitioner Data Bank reported that there were no claims or payments against advance nurse practitioners from 1990 to 2003.

There were over 16,000 medical malpractice reports against nursing related pracitioners and a majority were listed as registered nurses without specialty designation.

Do you think that advance education of the nurse helps minmize the risk of medical malpractice?

Source:

Ellis, S. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/3386/1/The-Nurses-Medical-Malpractice-Primer.html

Nursing Malpractice Statistics. (2004).  Retrieved from http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/medical-malpractice/nursing_malpractice_statistics.htm

Answer the poll from flisti.com

Can a nurse be liable for negligence if he/she followed the physicans orders? Yes if the patient was injured the nurse may be liable. No the nurse was following physician’s orders and would not be liable. or View ResultsCreate your own poll at Flisti.com

Medical Malpractice: When Can Patients Sue a Hospital for Negligence?

Hospitals are responsible for their employees' negligence and medical malpractice.

Read the article from Nolo.com for more information.

What if the physician orders you to do something that is not a standard of care?

A majority of nurses are employees of the hospital and frequently become defendants in nursing malpractice cases. Often times there is a dispute to determine if the physician could have controlled the nurses actions at the time negligence occurred. Even if the physician supervises the nurse it is possible that the hospital is liable when improper orders were given and the nurse followed them anyway.

Let's give an example to illustrate my point.

Example: 

A patient experiences an adverse reaction while receiving a blood transfusion from a nurse.
The nurse notifies the physician by telephone of the adverse reaction but the physician gives a verbal order to continue the transfusion.

The nurse continues the transfusion and the patient is injured.
Is the hospital liable?
Is the nurse liable?
What about the physician?

Regardless of the physicians' orders the hospital, nurse and physician may be liable for medical malpractice.

Source: Nolo.com

Have you ever been in a situation when you disagreed with a physician's orders because they were improper or not the standard of care? 

Did you follow the physician's order?

Nursing Malpractice

Civil Law pertains to wrongdoing between individuals or between an individual and a state that excludes criminals. In a civil case the defendant is found liable as opposed to guilty are directed to pay monetary compensation. 

Medical malpractice is negligence when the conduct of the medical professional did not meet the expected professional standards and that failure caused harm to a patient. 

Tort law is the foundation of civil law, this addresses the transgressions of one individual on the legal rights of another. There are two types of tort law, unintentional and intentional. Unintentional tort or negligence may occur as the result of carelessness or accident that caused harm to another.

Negligence as mentioned earlier is a part of tort or personal injury law and is defined as a failure to use that degree of care that any reasonable and prudent person with the same skills would use in the same or similar situation. If a professional such as physician, nurse or even medical assistant is negligent while acting in their professional capacity the term is medical negligence or malpractice. 

According to the National Practitioner Data Bank malpractice payments for nurses

 increased to $5, 567.00 in 2005 from $253.00 in 1998.

Six key areas of negligence:

1. Standard of Care
2. Proper procedure for equipment
3. Communication
4. Documentation
5. Assess and Monitor
6. Act as patient advocate

Source: National Practitioner Data Bank 2005 

Respondeat Superior

Latin for "let the master answer," a key doctrine in the law of agency, which provides that a principal (employer) is responsible for the actions of his/her/its agent (employee) in the "course of employment." 

Thus, an agent who signs an agreement to purchase goods for his employer in the name of the employer can create a binding contract between the seller and the employer. Another example: if a delivery truck driver negligently hits a child in the street, the company for which the driver works will be liable for the injuries.

   Source: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Respondeat+superior

Res ipsa loquitur

Res ipsa loquitur is Latin for "the thing speaks for itself".  There are 4 elements that must be met in any negligence or medical malpractice claim.  

What are the legal elements of a medical malpractice case?

1. Duty
2. Breach of Duty
3. Patient Injury/Damages
4. Causation